Meet of the Week Preview: Indiana at Northwestern

By Jason Marsteller

PHOENIX, Arizona, October 23. AFTER witnessing a strong start to the SwimmingWorldMagazine.com Meet of the Week program with the head-to-head matchup between Michigan and Florida, we move on to a weekend with three competitions in our crosshairs.

This weekend, we will spotlight Indiana at Northwestern, Ouachita Baptist at Henderson State and Carthage at Wabash. It should be an interesting weekend of swimming for these three meets.

First up, we preview the Big Ten Conference rivalry between the Hoosiers and the Wildcats.

Northwestern's Last Time Out:
This is the season-opener for the Wildcats.

Looking forward with Northwestern men's head coach Bob Groseth:On opening the season against Indiana
"Having our first meet with Indiana has been a great motivator for our team during the first few weeks of practice. Last year, Indiana was the defending Big Ten Champion and we wanted to go undefeated in our dual meet season. It was the toughest and most important meet of the season. Once we got by the Hoosiers, we were on a roll. This year will be completely different. We have a younger and less experienced squad and so we will be using this meet to teach the younger swimmers how to compete at the Big Ten level."

On how Northwestern's depth will be the key to the meet
"Paradoxically, if we have a chance to win it will be with our depth. Our top swimmers coming back from the NCAAs last year, (Kyle) Bubolz, (Bruno) Barbic and (Eric) Nilsson will have to counter the top IU returning NCAA swimmers – Ben Hesen, Todd Patrick, Matt Lenton, Pat Penoyar and John Kevin Koehler. Some of our more veteran swimmers who have been playing a secondary role will need to step up, and if our freshmen can come through we could make a meet out of it. Truth be told, it was our depth that won last year's meet and if we get a similar team performance this year it should be a lot of fun."

On the big races to watch in the meet
"Ben Hesen could be challenging Kyle Bubolz in the 100 fly. Look for Lenton and Bruno Barbic to battle in the 50 and 100 free. Eric Nilsson may be racing Patrick in the 200 free and Koehler in the 1000 or 500. Those will be the key head to head individual battles."

Looking forward with Northwestern women's head coach Jimmy Tierney:On beginning the season against 2007 Big Ten champion Indiana
"We are excited to open up the year against the defending Big Ten Champions. They are always a tough opponent to compete against. We are still early in our training but hope that we can step up and compete well. We have a lot of new freshmen who have put in some great work so far but are obviously an unknown for us at this point. I don't know if we are quite at Indiana's level right now but it's always fun to race them."

On Northwestern's increased depth in 2007-08
"We have improved our depth issue from previous years. We are now much improved in backstroke and deeper in fly than before. We have some young talent to develop in all the freestyle events. Several will help immediately and others may take some time before scoring big points against a quality opponent like Indiana."

On exciting head-to-head matchups in the meet
"Both relays will be very competitive. We will have to be at our best to top them. Indiana is very versatile so depending on what events they put their girls in we can have some good match-ups. Alison Kay and Brittany Barwegen are very talented flyers who will give our fly group of Katie Braun and company some great races. They also have a great group of backstrokers in Presley Brad and Ashley Jones. Hopefully Genny (Szymanski), Liza, (Engstrom) and Katie Eschenberg can hang with them."

Indiana's Last Time Out:
The Hoosiers split a dual meet with Missouri as the men claimed a 131-103 victory and the women took a 155-88 loss.

Meanwhile, the women took a rough loss after a few top swimmers remained home for undisclosed reasons. IU did, however, win the one-meter (Brittney Feldman; 279.15), 200 fly (Brittany Barwegen; 2:00.24) and 200 breast (Sarah Stockwell; 2:18.69).

Looking forward with Indiana head coach Ray Looze:"The team is excited for this test because a tough dual meet opponent like Northwestern will set them up for success down the road. We scheduled the Wildcats for this reason.